Ex-pat bluesman back in the UK

Matt, who does his biggest UK tour for a while this autumn, including a date at Shoreham’s Ropetackle on Thursday, November 20, (01273 455992), fell under the spell of the likes of BB King and Muddy Waters.

“It was real stuff,” says Matt, who was born in Manchester but now spends most of his time in north America, currently Toronto.

“It was my coming of age listening to people like Stevie Ray. My father was generally much more into the traditional stuff. I was discovering Hendrix. He was so important. With Jimi, it was so much about his playing. Jimi was the whole thing, the whole package. It was not that he was technically advanced particularly. It was just that he had a way of putting it all together that nobody else had. Other people have come along and cleaned up and broken down the wall, but nobody else has ever smashed their way through the barrier in quite the same way.

“As soon as I started to play, I took it very seriously. I had already been listening to my dad’s stuff. I started in bands, and within six months I was doing gigs at the age of 13.”

Listening was always crucial when it came to learning his trade.

“For me, it was always about listening to the records, but listening really deeply.”